Thunderstorm Knocks out Hard Drive and Spares Modem
A storm was coming through and I was using the computer. I was not really worried about lightning even though it was really cracking loud thunder outside. The rain was pouring down and I was typing on the computer when a loud crack was followed by the power going out. It must have hit a power transformer on a telephone pole and sent a surge through the lines. The surge suppressor worked, but a jolt must have come in through the Ethernet cable too. It ruined the network card and I had to get Alba Data Recovery to extract files off of the hard drive.
The computer would not boot when the power came back on. The series of beeps coming from the internal speaker on the motherboard indicated that the NIC (network interface card) was malfunctioning. That was when I suspected the surge came in through the modem and Ethernet cable. The modem seemed to be okay, and that is how it is with electronic devices. (mehr…)